‘Houzz Porn’ — drool-worthy home makeovers

Who doesn’t love house porn? Striking “before” and “after” shots of places that went from yuck to chic; peeks inside lavish abodes owned by folks more fabulous than you: Yum!

Now the Internet has a new category of house porn: Houzz porn.

Houzz, with a website and apps that provide visual inspiration for remodeling projects, is catnip for people who love lush photos of sumptuous interiors and exteriors. — especially those on a crusade to do their own home makeovers.

Herewith three examples of Houzz “ideabooks”: Coastal influence, small kitchens and home offices (both text and photos are directly from the site).

Whether their style is modern, traditional, tropical or Mediterranean, whether they want to update a mudroom, wine cellar, master suite or entire house, Houzz users can fine-tune image searches, consult with other users, and find recommendations on tradespeople and artisans to execute their vision.

hat’s brought Houzz’s traffic to 15 million unique visitors a month in just a few short years since founders Adi Tatarko and Alon Cohen created it as a way to help with remodeling their own 1955 Palo Alto ranch house.

“We realized the entire renovation process — one of the biggest expenses you’ll ever have in your life – was bad from start to finish,” Tatarko said.

Folks who really fall in love with what they see on Houzz can not only hire the architect, designer or contractor who implemented the ideas, they can click on a little green price tag to track down a product’s provenance and purchase it. For now, when you buy that $2,999 Vance Modern Hollywood Regency Espesso Antique Mirror China Cabinet, Houzz does not receive a referral fee, although that seems like an obvious future direction.

Kristine Boyden and Scott Taylor delved into Houzz for inspiration in remodeling their Victoria flat in the Castro.

“It helped us have the confidence to be more dramatic in our choices,” Boyden said.

Houzz provided ideas and validation for a range of idea from custom wallpa-
per made from dramatically enlarged prints by Victorian-era biologist/
artist Ernst Haeckel, to dramatic punches of color on Venetian plaster
accent walls, to picking the kitchen cabinets.

Custom wallpaper made from enlarged prints by a Victorian-era biologist/
artist was another idea validated by similar concepts on Houzz. (Ian Bates/The Chronicle)

“We wouldn’t have been able to do it without this iterative process,” Boyden said. “It let us believe we could be not only personal and great but aesthetic and great; there’ s a fine line between personal and overdone.”

While the remodel is done, they’re embarked on another project: Making their third-floor deck safe for their two Bengal tiger cats.

Houzz gave them ideas about glass walls that rise above the deck railings. But their cats are skilled escape artists, so now they’ve returned to the drawing board, er, Houzz ideabooks, in search of an even-better way to thwart the kitties’ roaming ambitions.